GA GA - Timothy Cunningham, 35, Chamblee, 12 Feb 2018

[SeesSeas]

There is a fact sheet being circulated that was approved by his parents. He had applied for an assignment as a branch chief, but was not selected. It was communicated to him on or around February 1st that not being selected did not reflect on his performance as a Team Lead or his expertise as a public health professional.

I am curious about the typical path of promotion at the CDC. I found a CDC organizational chart published August 2015.
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/about/osh/organization/pdfs/00-org-chart-0815.pdf
I reviewed the chart as an example of position titles, and it appears that the rank levels are Team Lead, Deputy Branch Chief, Branch Chief.
Was Tim hoping to go from Team Lead to Branch Chief? Perhaps in his division, there isn't a Deputy Branch Chief?

 

[HelloThere]

I am curious about the typical path of promotion at the CDC. I found a CDC organizational chart published August 2015.
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/about/osh/organization/pdfs/00-org-chart-0815.pdf
I reviewed the chart as an example of position titles, and it appears that the rank levels are Team Lead, Deputy Branch Chief, Branch Chief.
Was Tim hoping to go from Team Lead to Branch Chief? Perhaps in his division, there isn't a Deputy Branch Chief?

Deputy branch chief is more of an administrative/business/management position in most branches and not a science one.

 

[HelloThere]

Folks up thread were talking about searching the Chattahoochee River. I found a web site called Chattahoochee River Keepers where they do clean ups on the river for trash. Perhaps they could be notified and do a shout-out to focus on their next trip to search the area at Downstream from him?

If anyone here is out also a member of the family and friends at CDC Facebook page, perhaps they could relay that to them.

They are aware and have completed additional searches by the river, outside of their planned clean-ups.

 

[ThinkThinkThink]

Again attempting to clear up misconceptions about mental health and suicide: you can feel as happy as you want in certain moments, but it doesn't seem to have an effect on following through with suicide or having depression and/or other mental health conditions. In any case, looking happy is easy. That's why you can go outside and not notice anyone is depressed, when about 10% of the people you're looking at suffer from severe or major depression.

Point taken. And December also could have been a vastly different picture for him than January or February. I think that little tack-on note to my post was me almost trying to talk myself out of him having depression or self-harming. I truly hope this is one of these rare cases where he took off but is still alive... same as we all hope.

 

[TigerLilly]

I definitely agree too. I think he had a lot of personal life issues causing him stress and anxiety that his family was well aware of and have been concerned with for awhile, but I guess they never thought it would reach this point. The fact he was not selected for the assignment was the final issue that pushed him over the edge. My gut tells me he committed suicide, but my heart & soul are praying he’s just in hiding - I believe in miracles.

Statistically speaking, African Americans have a low rate of suicides, but I can attest that mental illness is a taboo topic in the African American community and many of us attempt to live with depression, which eventually ends up “winning” in the end

Same. If someone is heading that direction mentally, the things that bring the crises to a head dont always make sense to others. Sometimes it can even be the calm times that are a struggle....the monotony of life can take a depressed person to a darker place. Happy on the outside and dying on the inside. Mental illness doesnt always makes sense...especially to people who havent dealt with it. My jolliest kid..the joker of our family has struggled with suicidal thoughts. He will have long stretches of emotional calm and then things he would usually shrug off get him down. It's not always what happens..its what the mind makes of it.

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[liltexans]

I'm working on a new thread. This one will close in about 10 minutes.

 

[liltexans]

This thread is closed. Please continue the discussion in Thread #2.